The Depression and the New Deal

The Great Depression and the events leading up to it devastated Lee County farmers. In August 1932, as many as half of the county's tobacco barns stood empty, and farmers left fields unplanted as prices fell below the cost of productions. The Depression dealt a substantial blow to downtown as banks closed, foreclosures escalated, and a drop in revenues forced the Lee County government to issue scrip in order to meet its financial obligations. It had become apparent to community leaders that the need to diversify the local economy was imperative, both through private enterprise and public intervention.

Stimulated by the road improvements of the period and the growth of the urban markets, dairy farming in Lee County escalated to a commercial scale during the 1920s. One of the county’s largest operations dates to 1927, when Philip C. Yarborough established Fairview Dairies, Inc., near Osgood. Yarborough built a pasteurizing plant on McIver Street in Downtown Sanford in 1935 and introduced Fairview Ice Cream, which he retailed at two Dairy Bar Outlets.

The New Deal helped to generate public construction projects in the county, particularly near and in downtown. Recreational facilities such as a municipal golf course and a swimming pool were constructed on the outskirts of Sanford, and a modernistic armory went up on McIver Street. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt stopped in Sanford on April 28, 1940, to visit a National Youth Administration (NYA) "homemaking center" then under construction on Tryon Street. The homemaking center was one of several projects undertaken by the NYA boys, including renovations at the county courthouse and work on the municipal swimming pool and tennis courts on Park Avenue. Through public construction projects and diversification of the economic base, the New Deal helped ease downtown's passage through the difficult years of the Great Depression.